Steve Atwell

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If you're a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and/or badass women, then Peggy Carter is a breath of fresh air.
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In Captain America: The First Avenger, she might have been Steve Rodgers' (Captain America) love interest, but she was never overly sexualized and she proved she could hold her own with all the boys. Which is something huge, considering this took place in the 1940's. Agent Carter picks up where the first Captain America left off, with Peggy working for the "phone company" A.K.A. the SSR. She's not exactly taken seriously by all of her male co-workers, but if you've watched the show, you know she's proven that women do it better.
1. The men she encounters mistakenly underestimate her:
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2. But she can easily overpower them:
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3. She can beat anyone up, with only a stapler as her weapon:
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4. While all her male co-workers went for an unnecessary chase, she just needed a briefcase to finish the job:
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5. She can kick a man's ass, while on top of a moving vehicle, in heels and a skirt:
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6. She's the first woman to ever make Captain America quiver in fear:
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7. Bombs don't scare Peggy Carter:
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8. She plays innocent well and attacks before she's even made:
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9. Most men wouldn't be willing to try and prove a wanted criminal's innocence, but Peggy will:
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10. She can tell a person off with the more class than any man could:
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11. She can lay a man out in one punch:
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Sorry Jack.
12. An entire diner full of men are no match for her:
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13. She even has no fear when hiding from the feds:
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14. She's quick to figure out what's going on and how to solve it:
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And she does it all while looking fabulous:
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Why do you love Peggy Carter? Tweet us your thoughts!
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Marvel
After Bucky Barnes donned the Winter Soldier garb in the second Captain America movie, fans wondered whether or not he would ultimately fulfill his comic book destiny and inherit the Cap title from pal Steve Rogers. And we can't help but entertain a similar line of thought now that Marvel Comics has announced a new heir to Thor's hammer. The company utilized the platform of The View on Tuesday morning to announce the news that "the new Thor" would, in fact, be a yet unnamed female character.
"Thor, the God of Thunder, he messed up. He is no longer worthy to hold that damn hammer of his," Whoopi Goldberg, the ABC program's cohost (and clearly a devoted aficionado of the series, if her diction suggests anything). "And for the first time in history that hammer is being held by a woman ... The story behind her is she created herself. She was saved by Thor and she came down to Earth, followed him, and made herself look like Thor and so now she’s taking over."
Paramount Pictures via Everett Collection
Fans of the film universe will invariably question whether the still-gestating character will make her way into any of the string of movies yet to be released. With so many films propped for the future — following August's Guardians of the Galaxy and next years Avengers: Age of Ultron, we'll see no shortage of standalone character films like Captain America, Doctor Strange, Iron Man, the Hulk, and, naturally, another Thor feature — and considering the long arm of renowned strong-female-characters-lover Joss Whedon in the Marvel scope, we'd be remiss to deny the possibility of Thor's double-X-chromosome-laden replacement taking form on the big screen.
And such a prospect would be long overdue. Although Black Widow took a central role in The Winter Soldier, we eagerly await her proper starring feature. The Avengers: Age of Ultron will introduce Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch and an unnamed character played by Kim Soo-hyun into the mix, but will still pack a cast of predominantly male heroes and villains; meanwhile, characters like Cobie Smulders' Maria Hill and Hayley Atwell's aging Peggy Carter take a veritable backseat. A female Thor (alongside Steve Rogers or Bucky Barnes) would be a much needed addition to the formula. Although we don't know much about her just yet, we can't wait to hear more.
Something tells us a certain San Diego-based festival that's coming up soon will offer a bit of insight.
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Paramount via Everett Collection
In what is likely revenge on the public for not buying enough comic books in the last 20 years, Marvel is continuing its hostile takeover of popular culture with yet another television spin-0ff of its cinematic universe. According to Deadline, a television show based on Captain America's own Agent Peggy Carter will possibly go straight to series. The proposed show would star Haley Atwell as Peggy Carter, the no-nonsense army officer and one-time love interest of Steve Rogers A.K.A. Captain America. The show will likely detail the genesis of our favorite multi-national clandestine organization, S.H.I.E.L.D., as well. The character was first featured in Captain America: The First Avenger, and later on in her own one shot film called simply Agent Carter.
While the news is exciting to hear for Marvel fans, the company clearly has a lot to learn about the TV game. Its first live-action television outing, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., has exhibited flat storytelling, two-dimensional characters, and dull mysteries that have taken too long to unfold. While the show has enjoyed a recent upswing in quality thanks to a Captain America: The Winter Soldier tie-in plotline, this first season has been far from great. Here are a few things the Agent Carter series can do to avoid the mistakes made by its sister program.
Create better stand-alone episodesThe bane of many a TV watcher, standalone episodes are a necessary evil of adeventure-themed television shows like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. A show like this needs to build an overarching plot while padding out the season, so the dreaded villain of the week plotline is oftentimes a must. But one-off episodes don't have to be a slog. Shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X-Files, and Fringe excelled at creating fantastic stand-alone episodes that were engaging, and still taught us about the characters.
Don't waste so much timeS.H.I.E.L.D. took the better part of a season to become truly competent hour of television, and that was only because The Winter Soldier forced it's hand due to the game changing affects of that film. If Agent Carter wants to have a better start, it needs to come out swinging with a good overarching plot that hooks the viewer in. Nobody likes to play the waiting game.
Don't be afraid to get weirdThe Marvel universe is filled with C and D grade heroes to plum stories out of. Since the show will ostensibly occupy the same world as Captain America: The First Avenger, a film that wore it's Spielbergian camp on its sleeve, this show should readily embrace the comic book silliness of that film and take it a step further. The show should crack open the comic book anthology and embrace the antiquated, campy, and just plain weird heroes and villains that Marvel wouldn't dream of putting anywhere near one of their multi-million dollar productions.
Feel free to change the Marvel canonOne of the reasons why Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has never felt like a true part of Marvel's cinematic universe is that it has been too afraid to make any actual changes in its own story. The show has never been able to veer away from the finally calibrated status-quo set up by the films, and the adventures have always felt like they carry much less weight than say an average Iron Man adventure. Simply put, S.H.I.E.L.D can't make any changes to the Marvel universe without affecting the films, and because of that, the show has felt largely inert. Since Agent Carter would take place in the '40s, long outside of the current scope of Marvel's films, the show should feel free to craft a more personal mythos and chronology that the writers can play and morph into something unique and special to the show.
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British actress Hayley Atwell has caused a storm by dismissing critically acclaimed movie 12 Years A Slave as "torture porn". The Captain America: The First Avenger star sparked a debate on Twitter.com when she shared her thoughts on Steve McQueen's movie, which tells the true story of a free man who is kidnapped and sold into slavery.
Atwell described the real life story as "remarkable" but criticised McQueen's inclusion of scenes depicting brutal rape and violence.
In a series of posts on Twitter.com, she writes, "OK. I'm going to say it. 12 Years a Slave...' movie.. felt like a film for ignorant middle class white people. Yes. I'm saying it.... But the true story is remarkable and important and the film was torture porn."
12 Years A Slave received nine Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Best Actor for its star Chiwetel Ejiofor.

With all the testosterone injected into the veins of today's superhero movies, Captain America: The First Avenger packed a particularly strong punch with the inclusion of the strong-willed, gun-toting female heroine Peggy Carter. She may have fallen for the slab of muscle known as Steve Rogers, but Peggy isn't a pushover—the government agent will gladly scream orders to underling soldiers or take out a few Nazis when necessary.
Peggy's empowerment comes courtesy of newcomer Hayley Atwell, who is undeniably stunning but doesn't let her looks stand in the way of a forceful performance. Atwell's the real deal and Captain America is proof that she has a lengthy career ahead of her.
I had a chance to chat with Atwell on the making of Captain America (which hits Blu-ray today on a set we very much approve of), and she was more than happy to discuss everything it took to bring Peggy to life:
So I heard you're currently on vacation.
Hayley Atwell: Yes, I'm freezing. I'm in the Highlands of Scotland, on a mountain and it's minus six. It's the only place I can get reception! It's usually lovely and cozy here when you're inside by the fire with a glass of wine, but getting reception…impossible.
Well, you're a tough lady. You can stand the cold, you can fight pseudo-Nazis. Sounds like little you can't do. And your character Peggy's similar, a butt-kicking kinda gal from an era where that type wasn't too common. Were their actresses or characters from the past that you tried to emulate or went to for inspiration?
HA: Yes! I love Lauren Bacall and how strong she is on screen. And I looked to Katherine Hepburn, who had this incredible muscularity to them. Not necessarily in the position where we are today but…back then there weren't so many great positions women could be in terms of jobs, but within themselves in characters they could still be incredible strong and powerful.
But I really took it from is on the page. She was a strong woman and I really related to that. I could start getting in to the mindset of Peggy Carter quite easily. I loved playing strong roles like that.
But she also has a little romance with Steve Rogers. How were you able to strike a balance between a softer, romantic woman and still leading an army in to battle.
HA: You know, the costumes help quite a bit. She's a very practical woman, in the sense that she needs to get the job done. And she does that really well. On the other side of it she can put on red lipstick and a red dress and go out to the pub at night. It's kind of what's written on for you and as an actor you do what's on the page and you bring it to life as much as possible. I didn't put too much thought into it. You do what's expected for you.
Was it a relief to finally get to wear a dress in one scene after so much of wearing the stuffy military garb?
HA: I'll tell you what, I didn't feel as comfortable. We had filmed that part later on and I had become so used to the uniform up to then, and by that time also feeling like one of the guys. We played games on set, we hung out, we drank beer together. I felt like a tomboy. So the day when I wore the dress…the amount of attention I got on set. The heads turning. Men wouldn't look me in the eye and they also wouldn't talk to me because they were too intimidated. So I had a miserable day in that dress. I might look fantastic but I was having a crap time because no one would play with me!
Hopefully you got back to firing guns and making things explode afterward. You end up in a lot of action in this movie—how much prep and training did you go through in order to come out of each day in one piece?
HA: [Laughs] Yes, that's always a good start. We had two months of training, physically, before we started shooting. That was with an ex-Marine who took me through circuit training and integral training and got me physically very fit, strong. Along side of that I was doing shooting practice, not only so I had good aim but so I could be comfortable with a gun, handling it.
And once the pistol shooting went well, Joe [Johnston, director], who always has a twinkle in his eye and always wants to come with something to try, comes up and says, 'how do you feel about using a machine gun?' And I jumped at the chance. 'Yes, I've been promoted! I'm so happy!' So then the machine gun came out and it was thrilling, so exciting. So it was just a matter of how much I felt capable of doing and having fun with it.
Is it always 100% safe on these big action movies? Do stunts ever go haywire?
HA: Oh yeah. They go wrong in the sense that I got winded. Repetition. There's a scene where Steve pushes Peggy Carter out of the way in the street, while she's shooting. They both go flying through the air and land on the floor. We did it so many times it was hard to breathe. And at one point I stood too close to Kruger's gun and the blank shell kind of flew out and hit the side of my head. Quite painful. A few bruises.
But it's safer than real life because you're surrounded by stunt people. Unfortunately up here in Scotland, where you could for a hike but you can also fall down and break your leg because of the rocky terrain. Unfortunately, here I don't have a team of experts who are watching every move I make.
You're getting there.
HA: Oh yes, I have my entourage.
Can you talk a little about working with Chris Evans. It sounds like everyone was pretty buddy buddy, but how did you two develop a rapport?
HA: Part of the job is bringing yourself to the role, but you have a responsibility to have a rapport with the people you're working with, to give yourself a good time. I do my best work when I feel comfortable with the people I'm working with, and Chris is a professional. Part of that professionalism is making people feel relaxed, and it's through socializing and having fun. We'd have dinner, he had another movie coming out and he took us all to the premiere. With Chris, he's in a position to give 100% and he makes the most of the people he's working with. It was good for me, because this was the first time I was coming in to the Hollywood studio system and it was nice to work with someone who had a lot of experience.
Is that big Hollywood scene a place where you want to continue to work? Are you looking at other big budget projects?
HA: Absolutely. I had such an amazing time and it was a privilege to be part of the Paramount and Marvel families. It was so positive and it changed my life a little bit. I always do go back to theater because, as an actor, it's where I can go back and learn more about my craft. So if I can do both it would be a real dream come true. I'm hoping in the next six months or so to become attached to something else.
Do you have any projects in the works right now?
HA: Yes, I just finished play in London and I'm doing a thing called The Sweeney, which his a gangster film set in London. And there are a few projects I'm in negotiations for which I haven't officially put my name to, so I'll be able to talk more when they come in to fruition.

Superhero origin stories have been all the rage at the multiplex this summer with Marvel Comics alone accounting for two such films Thor and X-Men: First Class both of which happily surpassed critics’ expectations. Its latest Captain America: The First Avenger – so named as to provide us a helpful link to the Avengers movie coming next year – arguably faces the trickiest task of all three seeing as how Americans have not been in the most patriotic of moods in recent years. Could a flag-waving superhero really find purchase with a moviegoing audience that increasingly looks askance at such notions?
Surprisingly yes. That Captain America succeeds – and resoundingly so – is partly due to the producers’ decision to set the film during World War II a time where patriotism is a much easier sell. (And no viewer is too jaded to not enjoy seeing Nazis eviscerated en masse.) But proper credit must be given to director Joe Johnston who has crafted a breathlessly entertaining popcorn movie that unambiguously embraces its hero’s old-fashioned sensibilities and invites us to embrace them as well.
Chris Evans (The Losers Fantastic Four) plays Steve Rogers an earnest oft-bullied ectomorph whose lone wish is to ship off to Europe and fight on the front lines. But a plethora of physical ailments have combined to render him hopelessly unfit to serve however stiff his resolve. (To pull off the withered look of “Skinny Steve ” the filmmakers pulled off a nifty trick grafting Evans’ head onto the body of another actor Leander Neely.)
Rogers’ chance arrives in the guise of a government scientist the German émigré Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci as avuncular as a German-accented man can hope to be) who witnesses the young man’s idealistic ardor and recruits him to take part in secret military experiment. After proving his mettle in training Rogers is delivered a dose of Super Serum a PED that instantly makes him bigger stronger and faster than just about any other human alive.
Which is a good thing because on the other side of the Atlantic a renegade Nazi scientist Johann Schmidt aka the Red Skull (Hugo Weaving doing a tremendous Christoph Waltz impression) has happened upon his own supernatural power source and he’s used it to quietly amass a private army dubbed HYDRA that is bent on supplanting Hitler’s world-domination scheme with its own. Soon all that stands between defeat at the hands HYDRA and its arsenal of advanced weaponry is the juiced-up visage of the newly-christened Captain America.
Portraying a stalwart straight-arrow bereft of angst or ambiguity isn’t the easiest of tasks for any actor but Evans does a commendable job of bringing depth and humanity to a character that all too easily could have come across as bland and one-dimensional. Johnston seems to recognize this potentiality as he looks primarily to his supporting cast to supply the personality: Tucci and Weaving stand out as do Tommy Lee Jones and Toby Jones playing an irascible army commander and a timid HYDRA toady respectively. The film’s romantic spark comes courtesy of the principal cast’s lone female representative the excellent Haley Atwell playing Rogers’ military liaison Agent Peggy Carter.
More than anything Captain America is a triumph of tone. A former ILM technician Johnston did visual effects for Raiders of the Lost Ark and Spielberg’s 1981 blockbuster was a conscious touchstone for his film’s throwback feel and aesthetic. (Another less deliberate influence would be a previous Johnston film The Rocketeer.) Captain America embodies the spirit of the old serials melded with a tongue-in-cheek comic sense and punctuated by action sequences that deploy the requisite CGI fireworks with a welcome measure of restraint. The film is decidedly of its era but never feels gratuitously nostalgic. And its production design is gorgeous: Red Skull’s lair in particular is a treasure trove of retro-futurist designs all of which seem directly lifted from 1940s World’s Fair exhibits.

In case you hadn’t noticed, the "damsel in distress" is an endangered species in action films. Gone is the time when it was enough for the leading lady to merely look pretty and await rescue from her brave knight. These days, a broader skillset is required: She must be fetching in both evening wear and battle gear; deliver a punch or a putdown with equal ease; and, romantically, play both pursuer and pursued, depending on what circumstances dictate. Or, to paraphrase Uncle Ben, greater power = greater responsibility.
In Captain America: The First Avenger, that responsibility falls on the capable (and slender) shoulders of Hayley Atwell. Plucked from relative obscurity (her resume is dominated by BBC and stage projects), she plays Agent Peggy Carter, part of a top-secret Super Soldier task force whose patriotic PED, the Super Serum, will transform wee Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) into Yankee ubermensch Captain America. (Being the only XX-chromosomed player in the principal cast, she’s also Cap’s de facto love interest.) Atwell’s credentials are evident from her first scene, in which she beguiles in an officer’s uniform, smacks down a sassy grunt, and holds her own opposite a figure no less intimidating than Tommy Lee Jones, a man known for reducing lesser actors to cinders with a simple scowl.
We recently sat down with Atwell for an exclusive interview, in which the half-British, half-American, all-stunning actress talked about Captain America, her “f*cking huge” co-star, and her tomboyish tendencies.
Do you think that bouncing back-and-forth between the U.K. and U.S. while growing up, always having to re-acclimate quickly to different environments, played a factor in your decision to get into acting?
Definitely, yeah. I have family dotted everywhere – dad’s in California; I’ve got aunts in Scotland and Virginia; family in Kansas City; family in Manchester and London. I went to lots of different schools and had lots of different experiences. I think that made me hungry for other peoples’ stories. I was always fascinated by other peoples’ lives and their little worlds and universes and how they saw the world.
Since you have special insight on the subject, I have to ask: How would you compare American and British men?
Oh god, I wouldn’t want to possibly generalize. I’m gonna end up offending someone and probably talk a lot more shite than I intend to. But I think American guys tend to be a bit more forward, a bit more chatty and open than the Brits. The Brits seem to have a darker sense of humor, though I have met some Americans who have adopted bits of the British dry sense of humor as well. I think over time – over my generation, certainly – that the gap is growing smaller and smaller. We’re so influenced by American culture, and I grew up watching American films. I think Brits probably feel that Americans are more like us than vice-versa, if that makes sense. Because we get everything American over here in Britain, but yet there are things which are staunchly English that you guys don’t have.
I can say that I’ve never seen any group of people drink as much as English male football fans.
Wait till you meet the Scots; they’re even bigger drinkers. But then I’ve always felt that American drinkers, because the [drinking] age is older here, they kind of go mental at that [age]. In Europe, we’re kind of more about having a beer at twelve with family, or something. It doesn’t seem like such a taboo. And the drinking culture that we have in England is something that’s very much embraced. But in America, everyone seems to go absolutely mental, but then also, you don’t talk about it. It’s all very taboo.
Were you hesitant about doing a comic book film? The genre has such a mixed record.
Yeah. But the minute I met the director and he laid out what he wanted, I thought absolutely, I’m gonna do this. I don’t have any kind of judgments over it – I think that has its place and its own market and has its own kind of value. And each one can be done well. Joe was very calm, and he had a real twinkle in his eye and a kind of tongue-in-cheek sense of what this film is about. He doesn’t have a big ego, Joe; he’s very down-to-earth, and he was kind of like, “It’s a superhero film. It’s not brain surgery.” And he said it’s important that these were rooted in something real, that it was something a bit more grounded, so that they were three-dimensional as opposed to caricatures.
I was surprised to learn that Chris Evans sought therapy before taking on this role.
He did?
Yeah. He said he had some issues that he had to work out regarding the commitment and pressure inherent to being the face of a franchise. Which is actually quite charming, in a way – you don’t see that kind of humility in actors, at least not in public. Did that come across when you were working with him?
He had a sincerity and a vulnerability that he brought to Steve, which carries on even through his transformation into Captain America. He still retains that vulnerability. And he brought a humility to it. I think what was great is that he had great self-awareness. He’s aware of the dangers, the pressures, the expectations of it all, and that it does fall on his shoulders, that he carries the film, that it’s bigger than anything he’s done before, and that it could be a potentially decade-long commitment. I mean, he was saying that he could be doing this into his ‘40s. And I think to be that aware of it, and yet still do it – and do it without a false pretension of getting through it by being arrogant, or kind of bluffing his way through it. He was very present and very committed to what he was doing. And he balanced that out by having a good time on set, having a good laugh with people, and having a great social aspect, sampling the delights of London life as he did in abundance.
And he’s massive.
F*cking huge! During that reveal [after he’s transformed into Captain America], I was just like, Whoa, I’ve never seen anything that big in my life.
You have a few scenes opposite the pre-transformation, 98-lb. Steve Rogers. How did that process work, exactly?
It’s really interesting because Leander Deeny, who plays Skinny Steve, would watch the takes between Chris and I, and he would mimic Chris absolutely, down to where he would breathe in the dialogue. So it meant that when they put Chris’ face on his body, that every time the face takes a breath, the body’s also taking a breath. He was so intricate. Leander was very committed to it. He’s a well-respected theater actor and he has incredible expression in his body. It was amazing to watch it, and a bit odd at times, to do a scene and have all these emotions for someone, and then to do exactly the same thing again with someone completely different. I ended up feeling a bit promiscuous.
You mentioned earlier that you didn’t mind being surrounded by men most of the time on-set. Do you consider yourself something of a tomboy?
I’m not really into makeup, not really into fuffing with hair and stuff. It’s so nice that in something like this, where it is called for, it’s all done for me. It’s amazing. I’m kind of a jeans person – I describe my style as “anything I can climb a tree in.” I’d much rather be active than think about presentation, which my mum and my grandmother simply cannot understand, because they’re always so immaculate and so beautifully put-together, and I’m a bit of a slob.
So The Duchess must have been hell for you.
Aaaahhhh! The worst thing was I could hardly drink anything, because I thought, “Oh god, I’ll need to go to the toilet again, and it’s going to take me about a half an hour to get out of this thing.” I mean, I quite liked how, when you were in those clothes, how different you are. How you get to walk in a certain way and balance a hairstyle on your head. It changes so many things – how I moved, how I related to other people. I quite liked that. I liked that aspect, as opposed to feeling so pretty. I didn’t feel that at all.
Captain America opens everywhere this Friday, July 22, 2011.

Two new clips for Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment's Captain America: The First Avenger hit the web today, and now all I want to do is pick up a vibranium shield and toss it at some Nazi's. There's a lot of new footage for those who haven't been to a Comic-Con in their lives, including shots of a train sequence in a wintry setting and various other action packed situations, so check it out below!
Source: Den of Geek

Silver screen superheroes are only as good as their big-screen bad guys and if this photo is evidence of what's in store for Captain America: The First Avenger on July 22nd, we're going to be treated to one hell of a battle. Hugo Weaving plays Johann Schmidt a.k.a. The Red Skull in the new film from Marvel Studios, which tells of the origin of star-spangled super soldier Captain America, who was once the scrawny Steve Rogers. Chris Evans stars in the Joe Johnston directed film, which also features Sebastian Stan, Haley Atwell, Tommy Lee Jones, Toby Jones, Stanley Tucci and many more.
Check out the image below and tell us what you think!
Source: EW